PIC No. 86:
• Title: ChatGPT and the Future of AI: The Deep Language Revolution
• Author: Terrence J. Sejnowski
• Publisher: The MIT Press (Oct. 29, 2024, 264 pages)
• Management Bucket #16 of 20: The Delegation Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 86 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
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"Nonsense," Space Aliens, and a Talking Dog!
Oh, my. Where should I start? I hope my review will entice you to read this fascinating book. Let’s start with this:
“The Power of the Prompt,” Chapter 4, spotlights “the nature of cluelessness” (must-read!) by giving four responses from ChatGPT, based on the nuances of the prompt (the question you ask ChatGPT to answer). You already know that the better the “prompt” the better the answer. My favorite from the book:
“Me: You are a highly intelligent question answering bot. You will reply ‘Nonsense’ to questions that are nonsense.”
ChatGPT:
Q: Where was the 1992 Olympics held?
A: The 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain.
Q: What’s the world record for walking across the English Channel?
A: Nonsense.
Q: When was the Golden Gate Bridge transported for the second time across Egypt?
A: Nonsense.”
LOL! Nailed it! But…it gets better. You must read ChatGPT’s response to the same questions (and more) when this prompt is added: “You are a highly intelligent question answering bot. If I ask you a question that is nonsense, or has no clear answer you will explain why.”
If you’re reading this review—you’ve clearly played with ChatGPT or used it productively to save you time, add value, or expand and enrich an essay, article, or major project. (See my fun stuff below.)
Terrence J. Sejnowski, the author of ChatGPT and the Future of AI, is full of surprises—at least for a non-nerd like me. (Well…maybe I’m a book nerd, but not an AI nerd.) Sejnowski, “a pioneer in computational approaches to understanding brain function,” goes deep (without being too esoteric) into all the questions that the Average Joe or Jane is asking about AI—and especially tools like ChatGPT.
And speaking of tools, how many of these large language models have you tried? The author lists 10 choices of LLMs (with mini-descriptors): ChatGPT, Bing, Gemini, Llama, Claude, Scite, Le Chat, Grok, Perplexity, and Mistral. Sejnowski notes that Claude 3 “is pleasant to use and in the same class as GTT-4. It can accept whole books in a prompt.”
After reading just the preface and the introduction (Chapter 1), and then driving my granddaughter home from her piano lesson, I surprisingly kept this bright, 17-year-old interested in the book’s topics, big ideas, and very interesting sidebars. (LOL! Don’t skip the short anecdote, “TALKING DOG FOR SALE,” about “Carl,” the Border Collie. Hilarious—and also relevant to the topic of LLMs and more.)
The author answers the question, “Where Are We Today?” He writes, “The sizes and complexity of deep learning networks have snowballed over the last few years. ChatGPT feels different. A threshold was reached, as if a space alien suddenly appeared that could communicate with us eerily humanly, talking with us in perfectly formed English sentences and better grammar that most native speakers.”
Sejnowski adds, “Public interest has exploded since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022. Within two months, it had a record 100 million users, far outpacing the debuts of Google and Facebook.” Now—two years later—you’ll appreciate this deep dive into all things AI, ChatGPT, and even more fascinating—how AI is changing our lives and why we should not worry (or maybe not worry too much). Examples:
• “Will I lose my job?” This is interesting! “When automobiles replaced horses, the number of blacksmiths in the United States fell from 15,000 in 1860 to 1,000 today as the population increased tenfold. Today, 600,000 automobile mechanics work in the United States.”
• The Industrial Revolution and the invention of the steam engine “allowed a single farmer to plow a hundred times more land than a horse-powered plow.”
• “What new jobs were created by the introduction of the internet?” ChatGPT listed 15 new jobs that “often require skills in digital literacy, problem solving, and adaptability,” such as web developers and designers, social media managers, app developers, and (sadly!) “influencers!”
I could go on and on and on. But you’ll love how the author—in explaining AI and ChatGPT—leverages the amazing content from ChatGPT. Examples:
• “What key questions summarize this chapter?” ChatGPT delivers 15 questions, including, “Why are humans susceptible to projecting on a chatbot an illusion of understanding, and why is this important to consider?”
• “With the help of LLMs, this book took about half the time it took to write my previous book on The Deep Learning Revolution [also from The MIT Press].”
In Chapter 14, “The Future Is Now,” the author looks ahead:
• “Keyboards will become obsolete, taking their place in museums alongside typewriters.”
• “LLM teaching assistants will amplify what teachers can accomplish in classrooms.”
• “An LLM will have access to all court cases and benefit the law profession.”
• And learn why: “For journalistic chat, hallucination is a failure mode, but for creative writing chat, hallucination is essential.”
And get this! Sejnowski notes that “ChatGPT is particularly good at summarizing, so I had it summarize each chapter. In part II, which describes how transformers work, these summaries may be easier to follow than the text.” How many authors suggest you not read their carefully written pages—and urge you just to read the ChatGPT summaries?!
I’ve had fun and been more productive with ChatGPT since I signed on over a year ago. Here are eight prompts (out of dozens and dozens) that generated excellent responses:
• Create a nonprofit organization committee charter template.
• What are the 10 most convicting statements in "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis?
• Write a cover letter for a grant request to ABC Charitable Foundation, asking if they would consider giving $25,000 for scholarships for needy children to attend summer camp.
• Using the writing style and humor from “John Pearson’s Buckets Blog,” write a book review of “Decision Sprint” by Atif Rafiq. [Read the response here.]
• Give me 10 Christian hymn titles that might have some relevance to baseball.
• Create an annual performance review for a husband.
• Give several reasons from the nonprofit board governance literature on why staff members, other than the CEO, should not be voting members of the board.
• Write 10 snappy and humorous responses my wife could have given to the aggressive guy who crowded in front of her in the grocery line (apparently because he had only two items).
Well…I hope I’ve tantalized you with this hot-off-the-press book. As I’ve mentioned, the author surprised me with his ability to explain ChatGPT—and his insights to the underlying conversations that many experts do not agree on. (Can you define “intelligence” so everyone agrees?) I can’t say that this was comforting, but it enriched my appreciation for the veracity of the author.
If any of my friends and colleagues invited me to a book club discussion on this book—I’d be there and I’d even bring the pizza!
• The author writes, “AI has taken its first steps toward dealing with complex problems in the real world—like a baby’s they are more stumble than stride, but what’s important is that we are heading in the right direction.”
• Discuss!
I’ll close with this. In the two-page “Afterword,” Sejnowski adds a “Coda.” He asks ChatGPT to “Write a ‘Hello, World!’ Python program in the style of Stevie Wonder."
ChatGPT then delivers the classic “Hello, World!” programming request with this caveat, “Remember, this is a lighthearted interpretation and doesn’t fully capture the depth and complexity of Stevie Wonder’s music.”
I know. You just gotta listen to a Stevie Wonder song. Here you go.
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Delegation Bucket, plus other buckets/core competencies. (I could have slotted this book in any one of six other buckets!)
How do we keep up with the changing tech world? Richard Foster said, “If you are too busy to read, you are too busy.” Delegate your reading and check out these recent book reviews:
[ ] Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI (View the Zoom review with Dr. John Reynolds, David Schmidt, and John Pearson)
[ ] Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet (read my review)
[ ] Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future (read my review)
[ ] Church IT: Using Information Technology for the Mission of the Church (3rd Edition) – Order from Amazon. (Read my review of the second edition.)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for ChatGPT and the Future of AI: The Deep Language Revolution, by Terrence J. Sejnowski. Listen on Libro (7 hours, 22 minutes). For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting. And thanks to The MIT Press for sending me a review copy.
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